John Eccles' pioneering role in understanding central synaptic transmission

Progress in Neurobiology
Robert E Burke

Abstract

This chapter deals with the central role that Sir John Eccles played in the elucidation of the mechanisms of synaptic transmission within the central nervous system during the three decades between the late 1930s and 1966. His seminal discoveries involved studies of synaptic input to spinal motoneurons using intracellular recording via glass micropipettes after their introduction in the late 1940s. After defending the hypothesis that electrical currents alone explained central synaptic events, his observations of reversal potentials and sensitivity to ion injections instantly converted Eccles to the idea that central synapses generate postsynaptic potentials, designated IPSPs and EPSPs, by liberating chemical transmitters. He and his collaborators used pharmacological manipulations of recurrent inhibition to support the idea that a given neuron liberates the same chemical transmitter substance at all of its synapses, which he called "Dale's Principle". His team worked out the mechanisms and spinal circuits underlying disynaptic and recurrent inhibition, as well as those of presynaptic inhibition. Not content with the view that central synapses were static entities, Eccles also made seminal observations on synaptic plasticity in...Continue Reading

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Citations

Aug 5, 2009·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Paul M PilowskySimon McMullan
May 9, 2008·Journal of Neurophysiology·Jonathan S CarpJonathan R Wolpaw
Jul 21, 2007·The Journal of Physiology·Francisco J Alvarez, Robert E W Fyffe
Jul 26, 2011·Brain Research·Douglas G Stuart, Robert M Brownstone
May 27, 2006·Progress in Neurobiology·Robert M Brownstone
May 24, 2006·Progress in Neurobiology·Hans Hultborn
May 6, 2006·Progress in Neurobiology·Benjamin Libet
Jun 9, 2006·Progress in Neurobiology·Masao Ito
Apr 25, 2006·Progress in Neurobiology·Douglas G Stuart, Patricia A Pierce
May 3, 2006·Progress in Neurobiology·William D Willis
May 2, 2006·Progress in Neurobiology·Jonathan R Wolpaw, Jonathan S Carp
May 15, 2007·Progress in Brain Research·Mark Farrant, Kai Kaila

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